Priapeia
Priaepia
by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers
- Carved out of any wood thou please to take;
- But 'tis engendered by live cypress-tree
- Which fears nor hundred ages fully told
- Nor the decaying of long, drawn-out eld.
- Dread this (O evil one!) whoe'er thou be!
- For an thou injure with thy greedy hand
- The least of bunches by this vine-stock borne
- Shall spring (howe'er thou may oppose) for thee
- A fig-tree grafted from this cypress-stem.
- A robber famed for greed exceeding wonder
- (Eke a Cilician) would this garden plunder;